20 Video Game Villains You Couldn’t Wait To Kill

8. Big Smoke - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

The addictive gaming scene in late 2004, and pretty much every subsequent year until GTA IV dropped, was dominated by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. And it’s not difficult to see why.

We play as former Grove Street gang banger Carl Johnson, returning to Los Santos after his mother’s drive-by murder, and rebuilding his community from the ground up. Bringing together CJ’s old crew, including icons like the wise elder Big Smoke and fast-talking, street-smart Ryder, we build up our cash, weapons stash, safehouses and empire, while fending off rival gangs.

The game has everything: a massive open world of three connected cities (based on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), endless side quests, engaging missions, and a multifaceted story that swallows up your days and leaves you feeling you’ve really lived it. And while it has one heck of a villain primary antagonist Officer Tenpenny – voiced by none other than Samuel L Jackson – he’s not the fool we want to drop the most.

A devastating, mid-game betrayal turns Big Smoke, one of our favourite characters and CJ's beloved homie, into our worst enemy. Why? Because Smoke has been in bed with Tenpenny and rival gang the Ballas all along, and was complicit in CJ’s mum’s death. And we’re made to wait most of the game to get him back for it. Even after we storm his drug factory to blow him away he can’t help but be a blowhard to the end.